Tony Blinken Responds to Boehner: U.S. Ground War ‘Exactly What al Qaeda Wants’

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said (eventually, after much prodding) Sunday morning that if regional nations don’t provide ground troops to fight ISIS, the U.S. would “have no choice” but to send in combat units, contradicting the Obama administration staunch stance against boots on the ground. On CBS News’ Face the Nation, Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken’s said Boehner was playing into the terrorists’ hands.

“We’re not going to repeat what we did before,” Blinken said. “Hundreds of thousands of Americans on the ground in the Middle East getting bogged down — that’s exactly what al Qaeda wants.”

“This has to be local forces stepping up and fighting for their own country,” Blinken continued. “What we are doing is providing some of the unique assets including air power. But they have to be the ones doing the fighting on the ground.”